Medications not working well - Extraction of opioids other than oxy/hydrocodone?

[kailey_elise]

If someone had access to a large amount of hydromorphone pills and methadone pills, is it possible to do any kind of extraction process on them?

My friend (who's in chronic pain and has them prescribed)'s pharmacy switched the company they get these two medications from, apparently. "SF's" 10mg methadone pills used to be smaller; now they are much larger and say "methadose" on them. The hydromorphone tablets are about the same size, but a different color.

Now, technically (as the doctors would say), it shouldn't matter, as the active ingredient is the same, but we all know in reality it *DOES* matter. "SF" says the new methadone doesn't last as long - "SF" can feel it starting to wear off, which was never experienced on the smaller pills. The new hydromorphone doesn't seem to work as well, and also gives "SF" horrible heartburn (similar to the feeling "SF" gets when ingesting Vicodin), which are new things.

Prior to the company switch, "SF" had no problem just taking 6-8mg for the breakthrough pain; now 12mg of the Dilaudid barely seems to help and causes major stomach upset.

Extraction should help this, right? These could be reactions to the binders and fillers, which are apparently different in this company's tablets, since "SF" didn't have trouble before.

Thank you in advance,

~K.Elise